


The Great Lawrence Bake Off

by StarlightDragon



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Domestic, Baking, Cake, Christmas, Family, M/M, Married Couple, PTA Committees, Pie, Small Towns, Team Free Love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-28
Updated: 2017-07-21
Packaged: 2018-10-25 00:13:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10752696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarlightDragon/pseuds/StarlightDragon
Summary: Dean and Castiel Winchester move from a big East Coast city to a small Midwest town to be closer to Dean's brother Sam, who he hasn't seen for years. They're expecting that life will be quieter there, but things don't exactly turn out that way, since Dean accidentally starts a PTA committee baking war with Sam's husband Gabriel within days of arriving.





	1. apple pie

**Author's Note:**

> written for the 2016 team free love big bang!! there was a lot of great british bake off drama going on while I was coming up with ideas for this bang and I just,,,, transferred that drama to dean and gabriel im so sorry,,,, this was supposed to be a pta committee au and it still is but really there are a lot of cakes too
> 
> all of the chapters are named after baked goods, some of them have meanings behind them, some are mentioned in the chapter, some are just foods that I like to eat omg I'm hungry
> 
> sidenote I live in philadelphia so that's why I made cas from there, I'm just biased as fuck
> 
> also I named a minor character after my favorite person in the world so @ everyone just know that if I like you, you genuinely might end up in a fic

"What flavor did you make?"

Dean placed the freshly baked pie on the counter, took off his oven mitts and wiped the sweat from his forehead. Then, he turned to face his husband, who was leaning against the kitchen doorway dressed in a dark blue button down shirt and neatly pressed khakis.

"Apple and blueberry," Dean grinned, walking over to give Castiel a peck on the lips.

"Your specialty," Cas nodded approvingly.

"Yeah, well. This is the first time we're meeting these people. I have to pull out all the stops."

"They're going to love it," Cas promised, ruffling Dean's hair. "Now go get changed. You're covered in flour."

Cas sat down on the couch in the living room, waiting for Dean to come downstairs, glancing around the room. He still wasn't used to the new place, with its bare wooden walls and open fireplace. He still wasn't completely sure how he felt about the move in general, if he was honest - he'd never lived away from the city. But it had been important to Dean, so he'd agreed to it.

Dean had headed out east when his brother had gone away to college in California, and spent a few years travelling, sleeping in motels and sometimes in the back seat of his car when money got tight. And then he'd met Castiel, who had been working as a nurse in Philadelphia. He found himself making excuses to go back there more and more so that he could spend time with Cas, and before he knew it, he was settling there permanently. He knew that Sam had met a guy at law school and fallen in love with him, and he knew that the two of them had moved back to Lawrence, where Sam and Dean had grown up together. But they'd fallen out of touch when Sam had been busy with the move, and Dean had never even had a chance to meet his brother's boyfriend.

Dean proposed to Cas on the grass underneath the South Street Bridge at midnight while it was all lit up, and even though Dean's throat had closed up to the point that he'd barely been able to get the words out, Cas had said yes immediately. The two of them had married and adopted two girls, and Dean had been happier than he'd ever expected to be.

But there were days when he missed his brother so much it hurt.

So he and Cas had made arrangements to move, and then the four of them had got into the car and driven cross country, Dean and Cas suffering through an eighteen hour trip with two young children in the car and moving from an apartment in the middle of the city to a suburban house with tulips growing on either side of the front door. They'd enrolled their daughters in the local elementary school, and tonight they were heading off to the first PTA meeting of the new school year. 

Mostly because Dean wanted to show off his homemade pies. But partly because his brother was on the committee - the same brother that Dean hadn’t seen in person for over ten years.

"Alright, how do I look?"

Cas glanced up. Dean was wearing smart dark blue jeans paired with a white shirt and a green tie with gold thread etched into it, and Cas couldn't stop the soft smile that spread over his face at the sight.

"I am highly biased, but, you look mesmerizing," Cas replied, standing up and taking Dean's hand. "Ready to go?"

Dean nodded, and the pair of them headed out the front door, calling goodbye over their shoulders to Claire, the next door neighbors' teenage daughter who'd agreed to watch the girls for a few hours.

They drove in peaceful silence, Dean singing along quietly to a Zeppelin song playing on the radio. It was so much easier to drive out here, without having to deal with city traffic, and they reached the school in no time.

"Let's do this. We're just going to walk in there, introduce ourselves, say that we've newly moved to the town, you can give them the pie, and everything will go wonderfully. Remember, your brother is going to be there, and he's so excited that we've moved close by. He'll make sure you get introduced to everybody and that everyone has a wonderful time."

Dean nodded. His husband was right, as he so often was. Things were going to go great, and he had nothing to worry about. "Alright, let's go inside"

Castiel grinned and leaned across to give his husband a quick kiss, then climbed out of the car. The two of them walked side by side into the school, following the signs that somebody had put up directing them to the PTA meeting. They'd clearly been designed by some of the kids, as they were completely covered in glitter, and Castiel couldn't stop himself from chuckling.

There was already a buzz of chatter coming from the room the meeting was being held in, and Dean turned to give Cas a nervous glance, his hand on the doorknob. Cas was just as nervous himself, but he kept his face set and refused to show it. Instead, he just gave Dean an encouraging nod and then swung the door open, stepping inside.

Immediately, twenty faces turned to stare at the newcomers.

Castiel cleared his throat. "Good evening, everyone. My name is Castiel Winchester, this is my husband Dean, we have two daughters, at the school, Aria and Melody Winchester. We used to be on the PTA committee at the girls' old school in Philadelphia, and we would very much like to get involved here too."

There was a murmur of approval from around the room, and a woman stood up to grab two more chairs from the side of the classroom and add them to the table. "Welcome."

Dean grinned, feeling more at ease now, and sat down. He took the pie out of his backpack and placed it on the table, along with the plates, forks and serving spoon he'd provided. "If anyone's interested, I brought pie!"

The room fell silent. The buzz of chatter ceased, and Castiel swore he could hear a cricket chirp.

And then…

"You did what?"

A man stood up at the other end of the table. Castiel didn't even notice him at first, because he wasn't that much taller standing than he had been sitting, but he couldn't mistake the fierce anger blazing across the man's face.

"I, uh... I brought pie. For everyone. To share..." Dean mumbled, cowering.

"So, what, you thought you could just show up here and bring snacks? You didn't even stop to think that these meetings might already have, you know, a  _ designated snack provider? _ You didn't think for one second that you might be stepping on someone's toes? I earned this position. You can't just waltz in here with your fancy pies and expect people to eat them the way they've been eating my cupcakes for years." The man stepped out of his place and advanced on Dean, hands on his hips, his face red. "How dare you. How  _ dare  _ you."

Dean's eyes were wide as he watched the man's progress. "I'm sorry, I didn't kn-" But then his face changed, hardened. He stood tall, his shoulders back and his chest pushed out. "You know what, shortarse? You don't get a monopoly on snacks. Nobody gets a monopoly on snacks without a popular vote. And I would like to point out that nobody here has ever actually tried my pie. And maybe if they did, they'd change their mind. Maybe they'd choose it over whatever lame bowls of chips and hummus you might have brought with you. I'm confident that if we did put this to the test, I'd win. Are  _ you _ confident?"

"Chips and hummus?" the man gasped in outrage. "Will somebody please get the cupcakes out of my backpack?"

A man sitting next to the now empty chair reached down underneath the table, retrieving a large silver tray, which he uncovered to reveal an array of rainbow cupcakes, piled high with frosting in every bright, sparkly color Dean could possibly imagine. They looked mouthwatering, and several hands twitched, as though people were seconds away from reaching for these neon colored baked goods.

A flicker of worry passed across Dean's face, and he was clearly about to back down. It was Cas' turn to step in. He stood up, right by Dean's side, presenting a united front. "While those cupcakes look absolutely delicious, I fully believe they are all show. There is no possible way they can live up to the melt in your mouth perfection of Dean's freshly baked pie. I invite you to find out for yourself, even though under normal circumstances, I would not think that such a marvellous pie should be wasted on people who clearly are not going to appreciate it."

"Oh, it's on. You best watch yourselves, both of you. Cause you have made an enemy of the wrong guy here," the man snarled. "And for what it's worth, I accept your challenge. I know I've got nothing to be scared of. I run baking classes at the adult education center!"

"Your fancy courses can't ever substitute for the natural talent my husband has!" Castiel insisted. He turned and ripped the foil off of the pie, and addressed the room. "So, it looks like all of you are the judges. You can try this man’s cupcakes, though I'm not sure why you would even want to, and you can try Dean's wonderful pie that he has so generously bestowed on you all. And then you can vote for who you'd like to provide your snacks at the next meeting. And may the best cake win."

At that moment, the door swung open. "Sorry I'm late, everyone, I- what the hell is going on?"

Dean gulped. That was a very familiar voice.

He turned around and came face to face with his brother for the first time in years, staring at him open mouthed. He'd seen a few recent pictures, of course, but nothing could compare to seeing the difference in person. The last time he'd seen Sam, he'd been young and innocent, with a huge, bright smile, floppy hair, and a Disney Channel face. Now, he was so much older, and he'd aged well. He'd lost the chub on his face, and it had been replaced with defined cheekbones. He'd grown out his hair so that it fell past his face in waves and brushed his collar. And if it was even possible, he appeared to have grown another couple of inches. If Dean didn't know that was completely wrong for so many reasons, he'd almost say he was attracted to him.

"Sam?"

"Dean, what are you doing attacking my husband?"

Dean's eyes widened. "Your-"

The short man in front of Dean turned to stare at Sam, betrayed. "You know this man? He just insulted my cupcakes!"

"Gabriel, that's my brother. Dean, that's my husband Gabriel. I was going to introduce the two of you today, but it seems that's not entirely necessary..."

Everyone else in the room was silent, watching the proceedings, and Castiel was completely sure that the second the four of them were gone, everyone was going to be gossiping and analyzing exactly what had happened. He was surprised that nobody was taking notes, what with the way they were all leaning forward in their seats and paying rapt attention.

Cas cleared his throat. "Clearly there has been some kind of misunderstanding. I promise you that Dean would never have reacted in this way if he had known that it was your husband he was talking to.”

"Oh yes I would," Dean growled, at exactly the same moment as Sam said, "Actually, I'm pretty sure he would."

"I'm sorry, you are…?”

"Castiel Winchester. Dean's husband." Cas extended a hand to shake, and Sam took it, giving him a small smile.

"It's nice to meet you, Cas. Or at least it would be if our husbands weren't acting like petulant children right now, but I suppose we have to make the best of the situation."

"This doesn't change anything!" Gabriel shouted. "You still don't get to bring your pie in here, I don't give a shit if you're related to our chairman!"

"Chairman?" Dean crowed in delight. "Sam's the chairman? That means there's a conflict of interest! I'd bet anything you only got the baker position in the first place because your husband's the chairman. You didn't earn it. My pies, on the other hand? They'd fucking earn that title."

Gabriel's eyes blazed, gold darkening almost to black as he scowled, his voice getting dangerous. "Then this is still happening. You're all talk, but I don't think your pie can actually hold up to these high standards you're setting for it. This competition is still going ahead, and we'll see what happens."

"Competition?" Sam frowned. " _ No _ . No, there's not going to be any competition here. This is the first meeting of the new school year and we have plenty of important matters to discuss that are more important than cakes. For example, we're looking for volunteers for field trips for this semester, we need to discuss proposed changes to the mathematics curriculum, we have a dispute surrounding school lunches to settle, and-"

But it was very clear that nobody was listening to him. Usually, Sam didn't have a problem making himself heard. He was an excellent chairman and he knew it, and he'd been unanimously voted in for a third year in the position. But today, everyone's eyes were on Dean and Gabriel.

A woman with long red hair stood up. "Competition's on, I call first cupcake!" She leaned forwards and plucked a blue iced one from the tray - and that broke the seal. 

Everyone in the room launched themselves on the table of goodies, everyone helping themselves to a cupcake and a scoop of pie. Crumbs flew everywhere, and in the carnage, several people got icing smeared on their face, others found pie filling messing up their hair, people climbed all over each other to get to the best bits of pie in the middle and not be left with the crust, and there was a tug of war over the last purple cupcake. 

It was a disaster. 

And Sam, Dean, Castiel and Gabriel stood on the edge of the group, staring in horror at what they'd somehow created, unable to do anything but wait for the chaos to die down.

Finally, it was over. Twenty members of the PTA committee sat in their chairs with smiles on their faces and crumbs around their mouths, rubbing their stomachs, satisfied with their snacks. Both the cupcake tray and the pie tin were empty and even seemed to have been licked clean. 

One thing could be said for sure. The committee really did know how to clean up after an event.

Sam stepped forward, taking his position at the head of the table. "A-alright," he began, his voice shaky, completely thrown by what had just happened. "So, I guess we're doing this."

And if he was going to do this, he was damn well going to do it right. He'd coordinated plenty of votes in the past. Never for something quite like this, but still.

"Right, this is going to be a blind vote, no abstentions. Everyone is going to take out a piece of paper and write either 'Gabriel' or 'Dean', depending on who you believe should be the chief snack provider in future meetings. Your decision should be based only on the quality of the snacks and not on your personal feelings towards either party, and though the total number of votes for each candidate will be revealed, your individual vote will be kept secret, so there is no need to worry about repercussions. Pass your votes to me when you're done."

Everyone took out a pen and a piece of paper and scribbled something down, and a couple of minutes later, Sam had a pile of votes in front of him. He gathered them up and counted them out, one by one. Then, he repeated the count, just to make absolutely sure he'd got it right.

Sam stood up and cleared his throat.

Dean and Gabriel crossed their fingers where they stood, staring nervously at the table.

Castiel placed his hand on Dean's arm, comforting him.

"The votes have been counted and recounted. And the result is... a tie! Both Dean and Gabriel received ten votes, which means that the group is equally split on who should provide the snacks in future."

A chorus rang out around the table.

"What do you  _ mean _ a tie?"

"Are they going to take it in turns?"

"Can you be the deciding vote?"

"I demand a recount!"

"There's no  _ way _ ten people voted for Dean!"

"You shut your mouth, that was the best pie I've ever eaten!"

Sam sighed and banged his hand on the table. "Order, order! Everyone listen! I've already recounted the votes once, I'm absolutely sure it was a tie, and knowing both of these men well, it doesn't surprise me that both of their baking would be popular. However, I didn't get a chance to try either of their food tonight, so I can't weigh in as a tiebreak. That means that both Dean and Gabriel will be allowed to bring their snacks to meetings, and everyone will be able to enjoy food from both of them. I think this should be a fair compromise, as it means they both get to enjoy baking, and everyone here gets plenty of food."

Sam turned to smile at his husband and brother. He felt bad about how businesslike he was making this, but he honestly had no idea how else to handle this. "Is that okay with the two of you?"

Dean glowered. "I suppose."

Gabriel scowled. "Whatever."

"Then I think everybody should sit down. And we'll move the conversation onto more important matters."

"There's nothing more important than my pie," Dean mumbled as he sat down next to Sam.

"Nothing more important than how shitty your pie is, I think you mean," Gabriel muttered under his breath, dropping into the chair on Sam's other side.

"Quiet," Sam instructed, and both of them shut up.

Dean didn't contribute a whole lot for the rest of the meeting, too busy analyzing what had just happened. Of all the first impressions he could have made... He'd somehow managed to alienate his brother in law, cause a scene in front of the whole committee, and completely fuck up the reunion with his brother that he'd been planning for months now. And it was all his own fault, there was nobody else who he could even blame for it.

He watched Sam lead the meeting, skilfully guiding the conversation and making sure that all the points got ticked off the agenda even though they only had half the allotted time to cover everything, and he had to admit, he was impressed. Sam was clearly doing an amazing job here. He had his life, his husband, his family, everyone looked up to him and respected him. And then Dean had come here and started messing everything up.

Maybe the move hadn't been the incredible idea he'd thought it was going to be.

The meeting ended, and Sam dismissed the group. They all piled out of the room in a flurry of chatter, clearly off to discuss the events of the night.

Dean and Gabriel stayed on either side of Sam, staring down at the table like two children who knew they'd fucked up and were both about to get in some serious trouble.

Sam cleared his throat. "You guys, whatever went on in there... I hope you're gonna be able to put it behind you. You're both really important to me, and I don't want to let something stupid like a pie come between you."

Dean nodded, sitting up and turning to Gabriel. "Yeah, I'm sorry. I just wanted to do something for everyone cause it was my first meeting. I wasn't actually trying to get in the way of your cupcakes."

Gabriel sighed and leaned back in his chair, swinging on its back legs. "Yeah, I know. I got protective of my position here, I didn't know who you were, I thought you were just some random person showing up with food. I'm sorry too."

Castiel let out the breath he'd been holding. He'd been so worried that this was going to hurt Sam and Dean's relationship, but it seemed like it really was just a one time thing. "Why don't the two of you come over for dinner one day later in the week? We'll cook for you, you can bring your children and they can meet our girls, and it will be a good way for the four of us to catch up and get to know each other after all this time."

Sam smiled. "That sounds amazing, thanks - Cas, isn't it? How does Thursday work for you guys?"

"Thursday would be wonderful," Cas confirmed. "Dean?"

Dean and Gabriel both nodded in agreement, and the four of them finalized plans for seven o'clock on Thursday, before heading out to their cars and waving goodbye to each other.

"So..." Castiel began, after a long, awkward silence as Dean drove the two of them home. "That went... well?"

Dean groaned. "That did not go fucking well and you know it, Cas. That was the biggest disaster mankind has ever known."

"It worked out fine, though," Cas attempted to comfort him. "I admit that it was perhaps not the best possible start, but at the end of the day, I think the two of you managed to reach a compromise. And I am proud of you for apologizing to him. That must have been difficult, and I am sure that Sam really appreciated it."

Dean snorted. "Reach a compromise? You gotta be kidding me, Cas. No way am I compromising with that idiot."

"What?" Cas stared at him. "But you agreed-"

Dean swerved, his hands far too aggressive on the steering wheel, the car whirling round a corner. "I don't care what we agreed. I didn't trust the look on his face. There's no fucking way I'm giving up now. I'm going to make the best goddamn pies these people have ever seen and I'm going to prove myself to everyone."

"Why do you care so much? He's your brother's husband, shouldn't you want to get along with him?"

"Yeah, that's the other thing! He's the guy who Sam married?"

"You don't approve?"

Dean shook his head. "He's just so... so..." He struggled to get his thoughts in order, to describe exactly what he found so repulsive about Gabriel. "He's loud. And arrogant. And self centered, and he thinks he’s better than everyone. And Sam, he's quiet, and he needs someone who respects that and who doesn't use that as an excuse to push him around or whatever. And someone who pays attention to him. And… they just seem so different, okay?"

Castiel raised an eyebrow. "It seems to me that Gabriel is a little like you."

Dean slammed on the brake at a red light and turned to look at Cas in horror. "We're getting divorced. I have never been so insulted in my life. He's nothing like me."

"Yes, he is. He takes the lead in the relationship, at least outwardly. He's more confident and outspoken, but clearly insecure at the same time, which means he needs Sam's support. They balance each other well, just as you and Sam do, because Sam is more internally sure of himself. Do you see it?"

Dean scowled, jamming down on the accelerator so that the car took off again as they whizzed onto the highway. "I don't see it, that's stupid, that could apply to almost anyone. Anyway, aren't people meant to marry people that remind them of their mothers? Not their older brothers?"

"You were Sam's primary role model growing up. It seems only natural that he would look for someone with the same values as you," Castiel explained. "I'm not trying to insult you by comparing you to Gabriel. Rather, I am trying to compliment him."

"You always were such a smooth talker," Dean groaned.

"That's why you fell for me."

Dean chuckled. "That and a bunch of other reasons I don’t have time to list before we get home."


	2. cheesecake

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> dean and castiel: collaborate and give their children pretty, matching names  
> sam and gabriel: are complete opposites and somehow decide it's a good idea to name one child each

Dean and Castiel spent the next two days preparing for their dinner party. Of course, Dean had expected to have Sam's family round for dinner at some point, but that had been before he'd started up this odd rivalry with Sam's husband. That definitely made the stakes higher.

"Now, I don't want this to end in another argument. I want the four of us to be able to have a nice, adult dinner together and enjoy each other's company, Dean, do you understand?"

Dean squirmed under Castiel's intense gaze. "I'm not a child, Cas. I'm more than capable of staying polite around dinner guests. I won't even spit in his soup, how does that sound?"

"You can spit in his soup if it makes you feel better. Just so long as he doesn't find out about it." Castiel placed a soft kiss to Dean's forehead, wrapping him up in his arms. "How's the cooking going?"

Dean gestured to the dirty bowls and pans littered around the kitchen. "You know my rule. The messier the kitchen is, the better the cooking's going. And I'm pretty sure this place looks like a complete disaster."

"Yeah, well, I'll only be helping you clean later if you behave yourself," Cas warned him.

"Unbelievable," Dean shook his head. "I can't believe you're going to punish me with cleaning. You know, you could at least give me the fun kind of punishment."

Castiel snorted. "Yes, but I don't believe that would really be a punishment for you. The last thing I would want to do would be to actually encourage you to make a scene, which I believe would be the result of something like that."

Dean gasped in mock outrage. "Castiel Winchester, are you suggesting that I think us having sex is more important than the state of my relationship with my brother and his husband?"

"Yes, Dean, that is exactly what I am saying."

Dean shrugged, and had to concede that point. "Yeah, you're right."

Castiel chuckled, resting his chin on Dean's shoulder as Dean stirred a large saucepan of mashed potatoes, sprinkling seasonings into it. He dipped a spoon in the bowl and held it up for Cas to taste. Cas' tongue flicked out around the spoon and he let out a pleased noise.

"Delicious. Very creamy, no lumps that I can find. I would add a little more salt, though, if I were you."

"Thanks, sweetheart," Dean smiled, grabbing the salt shaker. "Are the girls dressed and ready?"

"Have been since they got home from school," Cas confirmed. "I said they could wear whatever they wanted so long as it was clean. Melody decided it was a good opportunity for orange jeans and a purple and blue polka dot shirt."

Dean snorted. "You can tell she's my daughter. That was the kind of shit I would have pulled when I was a kid if my dad wouldn't have chewed me out for it."

"Which is why I allowed it," Castiel said. "I also laid the table and managed to find our good tablecloth. And I put two bottles of white wine in the fridge and two of red on the sideboard. So everything should be ready."

"You are my favorite person. In the whole world. And I have absolutely no idea what I would do without you."

Cas laughed. "You better not forget it."

At that moment, the doorbell rang. Dean jumped and looked at his watch. "Cas, they're five minutes early!"

"I believe five minutes is within acceptable arrival time."

"i have to finish mashing these potatoes!"

"Shh," Cas ran a comforting hand up and down Dean's arm. "It's okay. It's okay. Your potatoes are beautiful, you are beautiful, and tonight is going to go wonderfully."

"You said that last time."

"I made absolutely no comment on your potatoes last time."

Dean scowled and turned off the stove, putting the lid on the saucepan. "Fine. Fine! Let's do this."

Castiel smiled and took his husband's hand. The two of them made their way through to the entryway, only to find that the door was already open, and the guests were already being entertained.

"Good evening, may I take your coats?" a young girl wearing a pale blue fairy dress asked a pair of bemused adults. Sam and Gabriel both slipped off their coats and handed them to the girl.

"Thankyou very much," Gabriel grinned, "and you look very beautiful tonight, Miss Winchester, if I do say so myself."

Aria tossed the two coats over the side of the stair rail and did a small curtsey. "Thankyou very much, Mr Winchester."

"Where are your parents?" Sam asked.

"In the kitchen, I think. Probably talking about you. They've been talking about you all week."

"Oh, really? What have they been saying?" Gabriel asked, his eyes glittering.

Sam put a hand on his arm. "I don't think-"

"They've just been saying that my dad's pies are way better than your shitty cupcakes and that they're going to prove you wrong. An' my papa, he says that he's got to pretend to be unbiased an' mature an' everything, but he actually knows dad's pies are the best an' he'll take you down if he has to."

At that moment, Dean and Castiel came into the room to greet the guests. Cas turned to look at his daughter in horror, the color draining from his face.

"Sam, Gabriel, I am so sorry about... I can promise you that conversation never happened, this is clearly just Aria's imagination because she's heard about what happened at the meeting from some other people at school, I have absolutely no intention of taking anyone down or anything so childish."

"Is that so?" Gabriel frowned, folding his arms. "Well, if that's the case, then the two of you won't mind in the slightest that I brought a dessert."

Dean grabbed Castiel's hand and squeezed it as tight as he could. "You did what?"

"I brought a dessert. Just something small, nothing fancy. A caramel cream pie with homemade curled chocolate wafers and a butterscotch drizzle and handmade cream fudge chips sprinkled on the top. I was bored this afternoon so I thought, why not spend half an hour or so whipping up something quick to say thankyou for being a good host?" He smiled angelically.

"Most people would bring a bottle of wine," Dean said through gritted teeth.

"Yeah, but a bottle of wine's so impersonal. I wanted to make something. To really show you both how much this dinner invitation means to us, you know?"

Castiel stepped in. "While we very much appreciate the thought, Dean has already made a dessert for tonight. And I am sure that he put a lot more thought and effort into his work than it sounds like the two of you did, so I don't think it will be necessary for you to bring yours."

"Oh, really? What did you make?" Gabriel smirked, turning to Dean.

"Handmae vanilla cheesecake with blackberry ice cream made with blackberries the girls picked from our backyard, and a blackberry compote."

"Oh no!" Gabriel clasped a hand to his heart. "Cosmo is allergic to blackberries! What a shame. So I suppose we are just going to have to bring our dessert in so that he can still eat. And so that he doesn't feel left out, everyone will have to try a piece. Whatever will we do?"

Dean turned to look at Cas, furious.

"We can't prove that they're lying," Cas whispered.

"I know. I fucking hate it."

Castiel stood aside, gesturing the rest of the group into the living room. "You're welcome to go in and sit down. Can I get anyone a drink while Dean finishes up the cooking?"

"I'll have a glass of wine," Lysander piped up.

Gabriel burst out laughing. "He's just like his dad. Nah, I'll definitely take a glass of whatever's going. The boys can have soda if you've got any."

Castiel bit down a snarky comment about not wanting to rot his children's teeth, because he didn't want to make this a parenting contest. Just having the baking competition was already stressful enough. Besides, they did in fact have a fridge full of soda, even if it was more for Dean than for the girls.

The group of them went to sit down in the living room, where there were a spread of toys laid out on the floor, including a huge wooden train set. Gabriel immediately crouched down on the floor with all the kids and started putting the pieces of track together, building an intricate array of bridges and tunnels that seemed to be more like a rollercoaster than any actual train route - but the kids seemed to love it, sending the tiny trains whizzing over the track. Sam sat down on the couch behind him, and Dean sat next to him, since he didn't need to get the duck out of the oven for another ten minutes yet, and Castiel hurried off to get the drinks.

Sam turned to his brother. "Dean, I swear, Gabriel didn't have any bad intentions when he made the dessert. He wasn't thinking about what happened on Monday. It's just something he does when he gets invited for dinner and he wants to be nice."

Dean sighed, because he was pretty damn sure that wasn't true, and he was sure Sam knew that too. But there was no way he could say that. So instead, he said, "Can we not talk about that? Please? Look, I know I don't usually say sappy shit like this, but... you're my brother, and I haven't seen you for years. So, tell me what you've been up to, aside from marrying some cocky baker."

"He's not-" Sam protested, but then collected himself, and nodded. "Yeah. You're right. We have loads more to catch up on than this."

Dean gave him a grateful smile.

"So, I'm a lawyer now, you know that much. But I did criminal law for a while, and recently I changed tracks, decided to start specializing in family law. So I try to help kids who are getting adopted, sort out custody battles between parents, that kind of thing. It's a lot more rewarding than having to defend a guy who you know assaulted someone, I'll say that for sure."

"Dad would be horrified if he knew," Dean pointed out.

"I know he would. That's not why I did it. I did it cause it's what I wanted to do, and I definitely made the right decision. I look forward to going to work a lot more than I used to."

Dean nodded. "Proud of you."

"Thanks. Yeah, I guess I just hate the idea of my kids ever being in a situation where they'd need someone like me. But if they ever were, I'd want that person to do whatever they could to help them. So I care more than I did about getting people off their petty theft charges."

"Alright, so what you're saying is, if I happen to have a very small criminal record..."

"Then you should shut up about it, because there's nothing I can do any more."

"Bitch," Dean laughed, and for a moment they could have been teenagers again, sitting on their dad's couch and insulting each other while waiting for him to get home from a night out drinking.

"Jerk."

Yeah, for a moment it seemed like the dinner party was going to be a success after all. But then the timer went off, telling Dean it was time to go serve his food. And food was where all the problems started, really. Dean's first ever criminal charge had been for stealing sandwich ingredients from a 7-11 after their dad had taken the rest of the food money out who knew where, and from then, everything had gone downhill. It only made sense that it was food that was going to fuck up their family all over again.

The second food was added to the equation, Dean and Gabriel were at each other's throats again.

"What've you made? Gotta make sure Cosmo can eat it so you don't keep trying to poison my children. Not that anyone's going to be eating much of this, seeing as we've all got to leave room for dessert..."

"So what I'm hearing is that your dessert is so bad that somebody would only eat it if they were starving hungry. I get it. Not surprising."

Gabe raised an eyebrow. "You're butchering my words just like you've butchered everything you've ever cooked."

"At least I can cook more than one thing. What about you? Ever made anything but cake?"

Aria tapped Cosmo on the shoulder, offering him a piece of asparagus since he'd already finished all the vegetables on his plate. "I don't know why they're being like this."

Cosmo chewed off the fluffy part of the asparagus and shrugged. "My dad's been acting weird all week. He always acts weird, but this is like, bad weird."

"Yeah. I thought having uncles was gonna be so cool. Didn't think they'd always be yelling at each other."

"An' I don't care who makes dessert. I just want there to _be_ dessert," Cosmo pointed out, which was a very wise saying for someone so young, and all the other kids nodded in agreement.

But apparently, it couldn't be that simple.

"Anyone who touches whatever trash Gabriel pulled out of his neighbor's garbage is grounded. Includes you, Cas."

"You're dragging the kids into this? That's a low blow. Guess I shouldn't be surprised," Gabriel countered.

"I'm just looking out for them. With how much you clearly hate me, I wouldn't be surprised if you'd done something to that cake. I don't want my kids getting hurt."

"You think I'd put my own kids at risk?"

"I don't care. It's still rude to upstage someone's dinner party."

"Rude to upstage someone's PTA meeting, chump."

Castiel stood up. "Enough! We're all having ice cream from the freezer. I've got chocolate brownie and I've got Cherry Garcia, and nobody made it, and you two-" he pointed at Dean and Gabriel- "aren't getting any at all."

\--

"Maybe we should just give up on this. Go back to Philly. The girls have only missed a couple weeks of the school year..."

Dean and Castiel were washing dishes, cleaning up the mess made by a dinner party involving four kids, two reasonable adults and two adults who hated each other. Neither of them had spoken for a while before Dean made that suggestion, sounding totally defeated.

"Yeah? You want another three day drive? Pack everything back into boxes? You want to give up on your brother?"

"It's not giving up!" Dean set a plate down on the counter, so forcefully it almost cracked. "It's just making things easier. I'm messing up his life by being here, I always have."

Cas rolled his eyes. "You know what? I don't have time for you to feel sorry for yourself. We moved because of you, but so far it's only me who's been trying to make this work. You don't get to have a midlife crisis once a month anymore, you don't get to just pack up and take off when things aren't going your way. You've got a family to think about."

Dean scowled and stepped away from the sink, even though he still had a huge stack of dishes to dry. "If you could stop being all high and mighty, Cas, that would be great. It's not like this shit is easy for me. You try loving your brother but hating his husband, see how it makes you feel."

He threw the dish towel over his shoulder and stormed off. The towel hit the back of Cas' head, a few drops of water dripping uncomfortably down the back of his shirt, and Cas pulled a face.

He finished up the dishes and gave the kitchen a quick clean - actually, probably more than it needed, considering they'd cleaned the day they moved in, too. But he was stalling for time. He knew Dean would be easier to deal with if he had longer to calm down before Cas showed up in their bedroom.

He was right. When Cas finally got upstairs, Dean was waiting for him, clearly sleepy and with just the bedside lamp still shining, but trying to stay awake until Cas got there.

"Hey, man, I'm sorry. You're right. We can't leave, we changed up our whole lives to be here. I need to stop taking out my crap on you."

Cas climbed into bed fully clothed and got under the covers with Dean, wrapping his arms around him. Dean rested his head on Castiel's chest and closed his eyes.

"It's okay, Dean. Perhaps we simply have to be patient with each other for these first few weeks. We'll get through them."

Dean nodded, his eyes drooping shut. "I'll try harder at the next meeting. I will."

"Thankyou, honey. I appreciate that," Cas whispered against Dean's hair, which tickled his lips as he talked. Dean didn't reply, so Cas assumed he'd fallen asleep, and it didn't take him long to do the same. Sleep came easy when they'd made up after a fight, and when they'd both vowed to make things better from here on out.

Sleep was more difficult after the next week's meeting, which was just as disastrous as the first. And then the one after that, and the one after that, and the one after that, until Castiel was struggling to sleep at all.


	3. butter croissants

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> sAM CAS BONDING

**"** Sam? Sam Winchester?"

Sam turned around and came face to face with his brother's husband. "Cas?"

Cas jogged over to him and gave an apologetic smile. "I wasn't sure how else to catch you. I figured that the morning school run would most likely be the best place, but if you have somewhere you need to be..."

Sam shook his head. "I don't have to be at work til lunchtime. I'm on shorter hours these days, so that I can focus on the committee, take some time to think about the kids, you know?"

Castiel didn't know, because his shifts were all over the place and he was constantly feeling guilty about it, but all the same, he nodded. "Of course."

"So, did you want to talk to me about something?"

"Mostly, I just wanted to apologize for the way Dean has been making things difficult at the committee meetings. I appreciate that he didn't know that Gabriel was your husband at first, but even so, I really feel that he is taking things too far and causing an unnecessary scene when you are just trying to do your job... this is certainly not how I imagined the reunion between the two of you going."

Sam was chuckling by the end of Castiel's speech, and he gave Cas a quick pat on the shoulder. "Don't worry, I know it's not your fault. It's frustrating as all get out when I'm just trying to run a meeting and the two of them are at each other's throats over sugar, but it doesn't surprise me. I kind of always knew that once Gabriel and Dean got into the same room, they'd be nightmares. They're both so similar. And both completely ridiculous."

Castiel nodded. "Completely ridiculous is a good description of Dean, I agree. I've been doing everything I can to make him into someone I can take out in public without worrying about how he's going to behave, and I like to think I have made some progress, but it doesn't seem to entirely be working."

Sam chuckled again. "Hey, do you want to grab a cup of coffee? There's a place over the street. Does the best smoothies I've ever had in my life, and their lattes are pretty great too."

Castiel frowned, considering for a moment. He'd promised Dean that he would be home and do some work on the house before his evening shift tonight, but he supposed Dean couldn't possibly complain over one cup of coffee and some family bonding time... "Absolutely, that sounds like a wonderful plan."

"Great!" Sam motioned for Cas to follow him and led him to a small coffeehouse a couple of blocks over, the kind of cozy place that felt like somebody's living room, where half the tables were actually just squashy couches in mismatched colors and patterns. Castiel felt at home right away.

Sam gestured to the menu. "Pick whatever you want. My treat. Get breakfast too if you haven't had any. Most important meal of the day."

"I work odd shifts, I'm not always completely certain what meals are anymore," Castiel apologized. "That said, I would certainly not turn down a croissant right now. And perhaps one of those lattes you mentioned."

"Coming right up," Sam grinned, heading over to the counter. Castiel sat down on one of the couches and relaxed back into it, closing his eyes with a soft sigh. He already couldn't wait until his house was totally finished and looked just like this.

Sam appeared again a few minutes later, carrying two steaming mugs of coffee and two croissants on a plate. He set them down on the table and sat on the couch opposite Castiel. "So, what do you think of Lawrence so far? Different to where you grew up?"

Castiel nodded. "Most definitely. Things are far quieter here, which I appreciate. The city is so fast paced, and that combined with my job can get very stressful... it's enjoyable to not have to worry about so many things right now."

"More time to focus on keeping your husband under control, right?" Sam raised a knowing eyebrow.

"Perhaps. Or perhaps I shall give him up as a lost cause and take up a new hobby. I've always had an interest in beekeeping."

Sam snorted, even though Cas hadn't intentionally been trying to make a joke. "You know what? You might be onto something there. Though truth be told, sometimes I'm actually glad that Gabriel's a little bit insane. When I was a kid I used to get bored out of my mind in this town, and I always figured it would be the same, moving back here after college. But having Gabriel to liven things up has really helped with that. It's just like having an extra kid, really.”

Castiel laughed. "An extra kid. That's certainly one way of looking at it. Does that make me a single dad?"

A slow smile spread over Sam's face and he opened his mouth, but then thought better of whatever he was going to say, and closed it again. He collected himself and then shook his head. "No. No, of course not, cause I'm sure you still have Dean to help with some things. Like the cooking."

Castiel nodded, frowning, oddly curious as to what Sam had almost said just there. "Yes, of course. Though I really feel like if he had his way, our family would only ever eat junk food. I have to be there to ensure that the girls eat the occasional vegetable."

Sam's eyes lit up and he leaned forwards, beaming. "Right? Gabriel spends all his time cooking these cupcakes and these fancy desserts and I'm just like, okay, but what about giving them something healthy so they don't have diabetes by the time they're in college? Like maybe a salad from time to time?"

"Precisely," Castiel nodded, taking another sip of his still slightly too hot coffee. "I know that when they're at school they're always going to choose the fries and the pizza and the chicken nuggets, all the unhealthy options, so I would appreciate it if when they are home, Dean would stop giving them burgers constantly. Obviously I want them to enjoy their food and have treats from time to time, but not at the expense of their health."

"We need to have more dinner parties," Sam suggested, "but just us this time. While Dean and Gabriel aren't around. Nights where you and I cook for the kids and we give them healthy meals and let them try new foods that they wouldn't get a chance to eat otherwise. For example, have your girls ever had salmon?"

Castiel shook his head. "The closest they've come to that is fish fingers and custard that they eat while watching Doctor Who. Oh, and the crab cakes that Dean cooks on the bonfire in the summer. But a nice salmon in a herb sauce sounds excellent, and if they at least try it, then they can of course have some of Gabriel's cakes for dessert. But they'll never know if they like it or not, if they don't get the chance to try it."

"Exactly!" Sam grinned, looking at Cas with glowing eyes. "Man, I am so glad my brother married you. I was so worried when he said he was moving here that his husband was going to be someone just like him, and then I'd have to deal with three of them and I'd feel like an outsider again. I'm happy it ended up being you."

"And I'm glad that Dean's brother is such a great guy. I have to admit I was concerned about how much time the two of you have spent apart, and worried that there was a reason for that, some problem between the two of you... but you turned out to be a wonderful person."

Sam blushed a little, hiding his face behind his coffee cup. "There was never a problem between the two of us. Our dad was the only person who ever came between us. If it hadn't been for him, we'd have been fine, we probably would never have moved apart, but... Dean had to get out on the road to get away from him, I had to go to college, and then he ended up staying with you. It was just circumstances."

Castiel nodded, listening intently. "Tell me about college. You went to Stanford, is that right? What was that like?"

Sam leaned back in his chair, speaking with a fond nostalgia. "Stanford was... it was everything that life here in Lawrence wasn't. When I was growing up here, it seemed like nobody here was going anywhere, but when I got to Stanford, and especially when I started at law school, I was finally in a place where everyone there cared about their future. People had dreams, they had plans, they came from all over the world and they were leaving to _go_ all over the world. And we were all there, gathered in this one place just for a few years. And we had to make that time last because we didn't have long together, you know what I mean?"

Castiel nodded, because he did know what Sam meant, but he bit his lip, worried. "Sam, can I ask you something?"

"Of course." Sam sounded surprised at the question.

"When Dean first suggested moving here to be with you, he was so excited by the idea that I didn't dare say anything that might ruin the idea. But I have to admit, what you said has been on my mind a lot recently. Do you think that our children will grow up the same way? Without any dreams, or any hopes of getting out of this town? In the city I felt that there were so many more opportunities for the two of them, whereas here... I don't want them to grow into the kind of people who think that their only option is to live in the same suburban town for their entire lives. I want them to know that they can do anything that they want to do."

Castiel worried at first that he was offending Sam with his speech, but when he was finished, Sam reached forwards and took Castiel's hand, looking right into his eyes as he spoke. "God, I feel exactly the same way. I've brought it up with Gabriel a few times, and he gets it, kind of, but he says that so long as we tell our kids that they can do whatever they want, they'll be fine. But I feel like that's not enough, if everyone else in their lives is sending them the message that they have to stick around here. You know that everyone at the local high school goes to the University of Kansas, if they even go to college? Do you know how many people in last year's graduating class went to college out of state? Five. Out of a graduating class of two hundred and fifty. What kind of a percentage is that?"

"Two per cent," Castiel replied immediately. He shook his head, staring down into his latte. "Two per cent... did I make a terrible mistake agreeing to move here with Dean? We could have moved closer to you but at least stayed in a bigger city..."

Sam shook his head, squeezing Castiel's hand. "No, I'm, uh, I'm glad you're here. And besides. Why do you think I became the head of the PTA committee? Precisely _because_ I was worried about stuff like this. And I wanted to do whatever I can to show the kids - not just my kids, but _all_ the kids - that there are more options for them, you know? So for the past few years I've been doing everything I can to organize after school visits, get great speakers into the school to give them presentations about possibilities for the future, things like that. And you know what? It's been going really great. Start them off in elementary school, that way they'll always grow up knowing that it's okay to have big dreams."

Castiel chuckled. "You should be a motivational speaker. That was wonderfully cliched."

Sam rolled his eyes, still smiling. "You sound like Dean. But you're right, it is a cliche, but it's still true. And if you're interested, I could always use some help. I know Dean only joined the committee because he likes to be an overprotective parent and he probably doesn't want to get too involved in any of the programs, but... if you've got any ideas, if you want to lend a hand ever... we're always looking for more people."

Castiel nodded, considering Sam's offer, gazing off into the distance. "I wouldn't want to go behind Dean's back with anything..."

"You wouldn't be going behind Dean's back. I can explain what we're doing if you don't want to. And I'm sure he'll just be glad we're spending time together."

Castiel popped the last bite of croissant into his mouth and chewed slowly. He swallowed before saying, "In that case, yes. I would very much like to get involved, and help in any way I can. I suppose that I have far more of a chance of making a difference here than I ever did in the city, so I should make the most of that."

"You found the bright side! I see why Dean calls you his sunshine now," Sam teased, winking, and Cas flushed bright red, stiffening in his chair. "Alright, do you have my number? Let me give you that. Then you can give me a call if you think of anything you might want to do, and I'll call you too, if I have anything going on that I might need a hand with."

Castiel walked out of the coffee shop a few minutes later with a spring in his step and a smile on his face, feeling lighter than he had since he'd arrived in Lawrence weeks ago now. He'd had no idea Sam would be so... 

He shook his head, giggling to himself like a teenager, not knowing how to finish that sentence. His mind was already buzzing with ideas of things he could do for the kids, and with Sam around and on his side, he really felt like it would be possible for him to do something great here. Not that he felt comfortable running into the committee and making suggestions like this in his first month...

That said, he did have plenty of ideas that he was excited about, and if Sam happened to ask him again, he probably wouldn't be able to keep them inside for much longer.

"What's got you all smiley?" Dean asked when he came home for his lunch break to make himself a sandwich and a coffee, and ran into Castiel, who was hard at work painting the kitchen a bright butter yellow.

For some reason, Cas didn't want to mention what had happened that morning, or the conversation he'd had with Sam. It felt weirdly like he was cheating on Dean. 

That said, he didn't want to keep any secrets from him, so he said casually, "I had coffee with your brother today."

Dean raised an eyebrow in surprise, leaning back against the counter in his mechanic's overalls as he waited for his bread to toast. "Really? How did that happen?"

"I ran into him while doing the school run." Okay, Cas had said no lies, but that was only a very tiny lie, designed so that he didn't have to mention that he'd specifically apologized for Dean's behavior. "We got talking about the PTA committee and decided to grab a coffee together to discuss some things. Sam was telling me about all the after school programs that he runs."

Dean rolled his eyes. "Yeah, those things. As if kids are actually interested in doing more school after their regular school. I remember when I was a kid all I wanted to do was get home as quickly as possible so that I could do my own thing after being told what to do all day."

Cas shrugged. "I guess some kids don't feel that way. And some of them want a chance to pursue the interests that they wouldn't be able to on their own. For example, theater. That's something that's difficult to do without a specific program for it. I know I've heard Melody talking about how she might want to try out for the theater group at some point..."

"She never said that. She just said that she likes playing pretend games. It's completely different."

"And Aria said something about ice skating. I know that the school does occasional excursions to the ice rink with an instructor so that they can actually figure out what they're doing and have a part of the rink to themselves so that they don't get knocked over by other people..."

"Yeah, well, we'll buy her roller skates for Christmas. That's just as good, and that way she can be independent and go out by herself and doesn't have to spend all her time waiting around for some teacher to say it's okay to actually move around and let go of the railing."

Castiel stared at his husband in shock. They'd never had a conversation quite like this before. Back in the city, they'd never had any serious disagreements about parenting, both of them generally trusting the girls to make their own decisions about how they wanted to spend their time, and finding it easy to compromise on the bigger decisions like choosing a school for them to attend. And yet here Dean was now, basically telling Cas that he didn't want the girls to sign up for any after school activities, for no reason that Cas could easily explain to himself. "So, what, you're saying you're not going to let them take part in any of Sam's programs?"

"Well, yeah! These programs always _sound_ like they're the best thing ever to happen and then they're never anything like what they say in the leaflet. The kids might think they want to be involved in stuff like this, but it won't be anywhere near as good as they think. It's like false advertising, but it's even worse because it's aimed at impressionable kids! Though apparently it's working on you, too, so I guess it actually is pretty good... I'm serious, Cas. I don't want them anywhere near this stuff. They can be perfectly happy playing with each other and all the toys they have in their rooms, and the yard, and with their friends. I mean, what did you do when you were growing up?"

Castiel thought back to his childhood, shaking his head. "Nothing like what you did. My parents were strict... they wouldn't let me out of the house without their supervision, I had to keep everything near all the time. I wasn't allowed to get any mud on my clothes, or, or play hide and seek or run around the house, you get the idea. I had to do all my homework as soon as I got in from school, and then the things I was doing for the rest of the night were planned out for me - dinner, and then piano practice, and then taking care of my brother. I very rarely got to make a decision for myself."

"Then you should understand what I'm talking about!" Dean rounded on Cas and grabbed him by the shoulder, forcing Cas to look at him. "You didn't want to be told what to do, and if Aria and Melody start signing up for stuff like theater or ice skating, then they'll just be told what to do, too!"

Cas shook his head. "But it's their choice. By saying that they have to stay here in the house and make a mess and run around the neighborhood, we're making their decisions for them just like my parents did. All I'm saying is that we should trust them to decide what they want to do with their time. And if that happens to involve some kind of after school program, then so be it."

Dean shook his head, grabbing his now finished sandwich and his coffee, heading towards the door. "Whatever. I'm gonna eat this at work. I'll be done in time to pick the kids up this afternoon."

The door slammed behind Dean, and Castiel waited until he heard the car pull out of the driveway before he sank down to the floor. He sat crosslegged in the middle of the paint splattered sheets he'd put down to protect the wooden flooring, putting his head in his hands and groaning.

He and Dean had just had a fight. A real, genuine fight over parenting. They never did that. Sure, they fought over stupid stuff like where they were going to hang the swing in the yard or which packing crate they'd put the tablecloths in, but they never had real fights over serious things. The last time Cas could remember them having a serious fight was... was...

Cas shook his head. He couldn't even remember it.

His phone vibrated in his pocket. Cas pulled it out and saw a text from Sam.

Sam [12:32] Hey, just wanted to say thanks for the coffee and the company this morning! Hope you're having a good rest of your day. S x

Castiel smiled, and it was kind of unexpected, since he hadn't thought he would smile much at all until he got this whole Dean thing sorted out in his head. That was weird.

He thought about it for a moment, and then made a decision. He hit the CALL button.

"Hey," Sam said a moment later, picking up the phone right away. "Didn't expect you to call. You could have just texted back, you know. It's the little REPLY button at the end of the keyboard?" Sam joked.

Cas let out a weak chuckle. "Yes, I am well aware of how to reply to a text, but I had something I wanted to talk to you about in person. I had an idea that I thought we should try with the committee, something based on the conversation we had earlier."

"Oh yeah? I'm listening." Castiel heard a crunch that sounded like Sam was eating lunch too, and he felt a strange kind of connection with him.

"We were saying how we'd like it if our children were able to eat better, because Dean and Gabriel are so often trying to feed them unhealthy foods, and it made me think... what about some kind of a cooking course? So that they could not only eat healthy foods, but actually be able to make them for themselves? It's a necessary life skill for when they do eventually move out, and since we're trying to encourage them to go to college and follow their dreams, it only makes sense to make sure they'll be able to take care of themselves when they get there, too."

There was a pause from Sam's end, and then he said, "You don't think they're too young for that? Cooking can be dangerous, there's a lot of things that are too hot to touch, people get hurt..."

"Obviously they would have to have supervision. But I think we should treat them with respect, not just try to protect them all the time."

"Yeah, you're right. Sorry, protective instincts kicking in, just imagining my kids with open flames... you're right. We can talk safety as well. This is actually a great idea..."

Castiel was vaguely aware of the fact that he was still sitting crosslegged on the floor of a half painted room with tears dripping down his face, but that was really only a passing concern of his as he got into discussions of a cooking program with Sam, talking locations and recipe ideas and how to get the word out to the kids and what evening they might want to do it on. They talked for such a long time that Castiel was sure Sam should have been back to work a long time ago rather than discussing this with him, and that Cas knew that if they carried on like this for too much longer he himself was going to be late to work, but neither of them could bring themselves to care.

"So, we have to bring this up with the committee at the next meeting," Sam was saying, "but I think they're gonna go for it! Especially since we've drawn up such a great plan right here, there's no way they can say no, we've basically already considered all the potential problems. And we were already planning on opening up a couple new after school programs this year! You're a genius, Cas, thankyou so much. And of course you're gonna be my partner on this one, right? Help run it with me?"

"Well, I don't have as much experience with things like this as you do," Cas pointed out, bashful all of a sudden. "But I certainly don't want you to feel like you're being left to do everything yourself. I would be very excited to have the opportunity to help out."

"Don't put yourself down, you're gonna be great. And it was your idea after, all. I feel like you're a natural," Sam told him, and Cas blushed, even though they hadn't started work yet so Sam might not even be right about any of this.

"Alright, I have to get ready for work now," Cas finally said, reluctantly. "But I look forward to seeing you at the meeting next Tuesday."

"Yeah, me too! Call me if you think of anything else you want to talk about before then, and we'll pitch it for sure."

\--


	4. chocolate mousse

Castiel was vibrating with excitement in the run up to Tuesday's meeting, and he couldn't wait to see what the rest of the parents were going to say about his idea. If nothing else, it was going to finally make a name for him beyond being the quiet husband of the guy who always brought pie and fought with the usual snack provider, and Castiel wantedto actually make a name for himself by doing something good and worthwhile for a change.

He found Dean in the kitchen, baking as usual, and his heart sank. "Really? You're making another pie?"

"Of course!" Dean held up his oven mitts in triumph. "They haven't tried my famous maple pie yet! It is going to change their lives. It's one of my mom's old recipes, she used to make this for me when I was really small, before she died. Like, I literally grew up on this stuff, it was like baby milk to me."

"I know that, you tell me this every time you make it," Castiel rolled his eyes. He'd found himself getting more and more frustrated with Dean recently, snapping at him every few minutes, suddenly noticing things about him that bothered him that had never crossed his mind before in their almost ten years of marriage. "But that doesn't change the fact that you're just antagonizing the committee every time you bring in a pie."

"I can't back down now! I have to show Gabriel-" Dean protested, but Cas wasn't having any of it, so he cut in.

"And you're just making a rift between yourself and your brother. You moved here to be with him and yet how much time have you actually spent with each other since you got here?"

Dean's hand stilled from where he was mixing the filling together, and he actually looked kind of guilty for the first time.

"Yeah, I thought so."

Castiel turned and strode out of the room, dialing Sam's number without even thinking about it so that the two of them could make final plans for their pitch that night.

Dean went ahead with baking the maple pie, and carried the dish proudly to the meeting. When he got there, Gabriel had already arrived, and had outdone himself with little chocolate desserts in individual pots, each of them full of layered chocolate cake and ganache and mousse and topped with a little curl of chocolate. He'd also brought a large package of plastic spoons so that everyone could eat, and was proudly delivering dessert to everyone at the table.

"Not you," he said to Dean when he reached his usual seat.

"Don't you worry, I wouldn't take one if you paid me to," Dean snorted, turning away from the desserts as though just being around them was repulsive.

To Castiel's surprise, Gabriel offered one to him, leaning down to whisper in his ear. "Hey, Sam told me what you were planning for tonight, I think it's a great idea. You better include at least a couple desserts on the menu, but seriously, I think everyone's gonna love it."

Castiel smiled, surprised but pleased that Gabriel didn't seem to be behaving the same way Dean was. Why couldn't _his_ husband be as chill about things as Gabriel was? Sam had definitely made the right decision, exchanging his Dean for his Gabriel...

Cas shook his head. That was a terrible thought. He loved Dean more than anything, they were just struggling to settle into a new place and it was leading to a few fights. But they were going to be absolutely fine and sort everything out, Cas was sure of it.

All the same, he took a dessert and delighted in the way Dean's eyes flashed dark as he scowled and gripped the table. "Traitor," he hissed.

"I've had your pies millions of times. I love them, but sometimes I might want to try something else, you know what I mean?"

Dean shook his head. "No, I don't in the slightest know what you mean!"

Sam stood up, clearing his throat and calling everyone to attention.

"Hello and welcome everyone, it's great to see you all here today! Now, we have several items on the agenda, and none of them relate in any way to the snack provider of these meetings, so if anyone's even thinking about bringing that up, I'd like to say right from the start that the topic is completely off limits. Period. No exceptions. Now, with that in mind, the first thing we have to talk about is the new pedestrian crossing that's being set up right outside the school, and how that's potentially going to impact the students and their road safety..."

Castiel's legs were jiggling under the table, and he was far more nervous than he'd expected to be. He didn't usually have a problem speaking in front of a group, but right now he was honestly terrified, and he didn't want to mess this up, so he barely heard anything of what Sam was saying until-"

"...and lastly, a pitch for a new after school initiative that Castiel Winchester and I have designed. Castiel, would you like to take over?"

"Me?" Cas asked, getting to his feet, nervous.

"Of course. I'm sure everyone here is sick of my voice by now."

Dean looked up at Castiel, frowning, looking... not quite betrayed, but certainly confused, with a little of something else in his eyes, too.

"Right. Well. Sam and I have been discussing, and we think that it would be an excellent idea for the kids to have the opportunity to learn cooking skills. We would like to organize a weekly after school program, one that the kids can drop into, deciding each week whether or not they would like to attend, with the menus and skills learned for the week announced in advance and made public for anyone to see. The children would be heavily supervised and would learn a range of skills including but not limited to, how to safely use a knife to chop food, how to decide whether food is safe to eat, how to shop and cook meals on a budget, and, of course, how to put together a healthy meal. They would have practical experience in making a range of dishes and would be allowed, with adults on hand, to use appliances such as the oven and the stove themselves..."

\--

"What the hell are you doing?" Dean burst out once he and Cas were back in the car and well away from anyone else who might overhear. He was crumbling the remaining pie between his fingers, turning it into some kind of deconstructed pie stew that he dumped back into the tin.

"What do you mean, what am I doing?" Cas replied, staring straight ahead and refusing to look at Dean.

"This cooking program bullshit! You and Sam have been talking about this behind my back! You know how I feel about these after school programs and here you are, hanging out with _my_ brother and taking _his_ side and trying to make _yourself_ look great and eating Gabriel's fucking chocolate desserts and, God, Cas, it's like you don't even want to be associated with me anymore! What's happened to us, huh?"

"It's not like that!" Cas burst out.  "I'm not trying to... to undermine you, or anything! I just want to make a difference here. To get involved rather than sit in the back of the meetings waiting for you and Gabriel to finish your dumb feud and actually _do_ something for a change!"

Dean shook his head. "Cas, we're married! That means we're supposed to be a team! And there you are just running off and, and, and it seems like you and my brother are more of a team than you and I are, and do you have any idea how much that sucks for me? You being closer to my brother and spending more time with him than I am? Who do _I_ have since I moved back here? You two are the most important people in my life, and..." He sighed, running a hand through his hair and staring out the window, mumbling. "And right now I don't have either of you, and all my other friends are thousands of miles away."

Castiel froze where he sat for a moment, and then fell back into his seat, the pieces clicking together in his mind. "You're jealous because Sam and I are spending time together."

"Not exactly," Dean shook his head again, pouting. "I'm jealous that the two of you are spending time together without me. I want you to be close, but it's just like... I'm getting excluded."

Cas reached over and put a hand on Dean's thigh, giving it a quick squeeze. "Okay. I'm sorry. Thanks for telling me. I should have figured that out before, I guess I just got caught up in planning things with Sam and I stopped even thinking about..." He attempted a small smile. He knew it wasn't easy for Dean to open up like that. "We can fix this. Next time Sam and I do some planning work, you're invited. We'll make sure we meet sometime when you're not working. How's that sound?"

Dean frowned. "But you're still going to be doing this dumb after school program thing. And I don't care about that."

Castiel sighed. "But we tried to have a dinner party where we'd just talk about whatever, and you ended up turning that into a fight with Gabriel! It's like I can't win here. I'm not allowed to get involved in making the school district a better place for my children to grow up in, and yet, you're allowed to start a fight with your brother's husband that embarrasses me and stops us all from being able to get along like adults? That's how this is gonna work?"

"Yeah, that's right, Cas!" Dean yelled. "Look at you, always thinking about yourself. It's always been like this! You've always thought that you're, I dunno, being dragged down by me, you've always been smarter and more successful and all round better than me, and you've never wanted me to spend any time with your friends and I put up with it because I love you and I know damn well that you're way too good for me! But this is my brother who you don't want me spending time with now and that's a step too far, Cas!"

"I don't do any of that!" Cas screamed back, and by now if anyone was walking past the car they probably would be able to hear what was going on, the two of them were yelling so loudly. "I don't want to mess anything up or keep you away from our friends and I have never, ever thought I'm too good for you! I just don't think that we have to be each other's entire lives! I want us to have other people we spend time with outside of our marriage!"

Dean slammed his head on the steering wheel. "We should never fucking have moved here. We had a good thing back in Philly. Seems like since we got here we've just started fighting all the time."

Castiel nodded, resting his forehead against the window and staring out of it. "You're right. You're right. We're just stressed from the move. We're still figuring everything out, aren't we? We're adjusting to being in a new place and-"

"Stop making excuses for yourself. We've been here for a month now."

"That's not very long-"

"You're doing it again, you're overruling my opinion-"

"Don't you interrupt me, Dean Winchester, let me get a word in for once-"

"You shut your mouth, Castiel Winchester, your words aren't more important than-"

"Maybe not, but they sure as hell make more sense than yours do right at this moment-"

"My brother's got a crush on you!"

That made Castiel shut up for real and stop trying to argue with Dean, although he wasn't entirely sure that Dean was as proud of himself as he looked. "What?"

Dean turned and gave Castiel a triumphant look. "I see it in his eyes, it's the same way he used to act in high school, he goes all starry whenever he says somebody's name or looks at them, and it's frankly embarrassing. And when you guys were talking about the cooking idea and doing your thing in the meeting? He was looking at you the same way he always looked at the dates he brought home in high school. And right now I'm scared that the two of you are going to-"

He stopped talking abruptly, closing his mouth and sealing it off. Clearly he'd expressed too many emotions for one day and wasn't prepared to share any more.

"Nothing's going on between me and Sam," Cas whispered, clenching the door handle. "This isn't some soap opera where people in the suburbs have affairs with each other because they have nothing better to do with their free time. Sam and I just have a lot of similar ideas when it comes to the school and the committee, and you are welcome to join us any time you want so long as you don't to try to tell us that everything we're doing is terrible and the complete opposite of what the kids want in their lives. You got that?"

Dean pulled a face as he swung the car into the driveway. "Whatever, Cas. I'm gonna get the kids ready for bed. You can go have phone sex with my brother or however you're spending your nights right now."

"I'm going to take a fucking nap so that I can go to work at two in the morning and do my job that helps people," Cas countered, jumping out of the car and following Dean through the door.

But it was difficult to get to sleep once he did get upstairs and put his pajamas on. Cas was tossing and turning, trying to get comfortable between the sheets that still didn't quite feel like his. Him and Sam? Sam having a crush on him? There was no way. Sam was with Gabriel, and they were clearly amazingly happy together. Even though Sam complained about him sometimes, it was always the affectionate kind of complaining that didn't actually mean anything, and ended with Sam having the kind of sappy smile on his face that clearly said, "he's great, isn't he?" And Cas may have been worried about him and Dean recently, but he'd always figured that anything that ever happened between him and Sam would be one sided on Cas' end rather than-

_ Shit. _

Cas buried his hehad into the pillow, trying to shake that thought from his mind. He didn't have feelings for Sam. He just had a lot of respect for him as someone who was doing a great job with the school district. He saw him as a kind of role model, something he wanted to become more like. That was all that was happening here.

He pulled out his phone and shot off a text to Sam to prove it.

Castiel [21:43] I think tonight went well, don't you?

Sam [21:44] Abolutely! You killed it in there. ;)

Castiel had never been the kind to overanalyze the messages he received from boys when he was younger, mostly because he'd never understood quite how to interpret modern slang or emojis or anything like that. And Dean had always been pretty direct about the fact that he wanted to get Castiel into bed as often as he possibly could. But this text... Castiel couldn't deny the fact that Sam had replied instantly, even though he was probably busy, and had included a wink at the end.

He made a vague grumbling noise to himself and then reached over to switch the light on. He was basically guaranteed not to sleep now, and to have to face his entire twelve hour shift on no sleep, but that couldn't really be helped.

He glanced towards the window. It was dark out now, and the stars were shining in the sky. He could see far more of the stars than he ever had back in the city.

Castiel climbed out of bed and made his way over to the window, opening it and leaning outside in his pajamas. The living room window just below him stuck out, and there was a seat inside of it for watching the world go by, but more importantly there was a ledge that would make an easy landing. Cas could easily jump out of the window, and then he would land on the ledge below and be able to swing himself down to the ground from there. The curtains were probably closed, and that would mean nobody would see him as he scuttled across the lawn and out to wherever it was he wanted to go...

Castiel [21:49] Are you busy right now? I had another idea for something we could pitch to the group. If you're free, I could come over and tell you about it.

If he moved fast, Sam and Gabriel's place was about a ten minute walk from here, and he could spend a couple of hours there and be back here in time to get ready for work, no problem. He wasn't going to sleep anyway, so he might as well do something fun with his time.

Sam [21:51] Of course! You're always welcome here, don't even need to call ahead. See you soon!

His heart beating fast, Castiel threw on a pair of jeans and a sweater and then began to wriggle his way out of the window, trying to keep as quiet as possible so as not to disturb Dean. He felt like a teenager all over again, sneaking out of the house to go on an illicit date, disobeying his parents, doing something he knew full well he wasn't allowed to and feeling the adrenaline that came with the possibility of getting caught. He zipped through the streets, feeling lighter than the cool fall air that whipped against his face as he crunched through the leaves on the ground, and almost before he knew it he was at Sam and Gabriel's front door, somewhere he never expected to be at the late hour of ten fifteen on a Tuesday night.


	5. frosted cupcakes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> i promise that before the end of this fic everyone will be honest with each other _i literally swear it on castiel's life_

Sam opened the door almost immediately, grinning. "Hey, Cas, good to see you! Dean looking after the girls?"

"Yeah, they're in bed, but of course we didn't want to both go out and leave them on their own," Cas said casually, making it sound like Dean knew exactly where he was, and like he hadn't just clambered out of a window in secret for the first time in many years. Nothing about this situation felt quite real. Castiel shouldn't be here, in Sam and Gabriel's bright, warm house, knowing full well that he had feelings for Sam ( _shit, this was a mess, he had feelings for Sam_ ) and that his husband had reason to believe those feelings were mutual... This was surreal. This wasn't the kind of thing Castiel did, not ever.

"Can I get you something to drink? A beer?" Sam asked, gesturing for Cas to move into the living room. Gabriel was already there, curled up on the couch in his pajamas, watching some TV show that kept making him laugh. Everything was so domestic and easy and so very like Castiel was used to in his own house, and yet somehow different at the same time.

Castiel had to work in less then four hours and he most certainly could not drink before his shift. That was against every rule and if he got caught, he'd be fired from the hospital before he could blink. 

"Yes, thankyou. A beer would be excellent."

Sam appeared in the living room holding three uncapped beers a moment later, and passed them out. Castiel sat down on the other side of the couch, and Sam, instead of going to sit in the armchair like Cas expected him to, flopped down in the middle between the two of them and took a long drink from his beer. He was closer to Castiel than the two of them had ever been before...

"So, you said something about another idea for the kids?" Sam said through a yawn. "I've got to admit, I'm curious. After your last brilliant idea, I'm convinced that all of your ideas will be perfect."

Cas blushed and shook his head. "Way to set the bar high. I'm not sure I can live up to these standards."

"You will. Just having a fresh pair of ears to talk through things with is much appreciated," Sam promised, completely ignoring whatever was on the television and instead focusing entirely on Castiel.

"Okay," Cas began nervously, biting his lip. "You mentioned that... that you have guest speakers who come in to give talks to the kids. And that's great. Amazing, in fact. But it's still just... sitting and listening. And I want to see these kids get out there and actually experience the world for themselves. I want to organize some kind of trip, like a school field trip but bigger. I want to take them to Washington DC where they can go to a few museums, see some culture... we could do it in the spring or the summer where it's going to be warm, see the monuments, maybe even go out to the harbor and let the kids actually experience the ocean for once in their lives... back where we used to live it was so easy to go down there for a day trip. But here, people go their whole lives and they never once get to see the capital city. What's up with that?"

By the time Castiel finished talking, Sam was staring at him in a mixture of disbelief and... was that admiration? No, that was the wrong way around entirely, it was supposed to be Cas who was admiring Sam, not...

"Cas, I love where you're going with this, I do. And I agree with you that the kids would love that, and that everyone should have that chance. I mean, I've been all over the west coast but I've never been out to DC, so from a selfish point of view I'd love it just as much as the kids would... what about you, Gabe?"

"Think I went with my parents when I was like, four," Gabriel replied, shifting so that his head was resting in Sam's lap. Sam instinctively wove his hands into Gabriel's hair, making Gabriel purr in content. "Don't remember anything about it, though. Would be great to go back."

"Exactly," Sam nodded, "it's a brilliant idea in theory, but I don't know if we'd be able to make it work. We get funding from the school, but nowhere near enough to pull off something like this. And truth be told, most of the families around here just don't have the money to send their kids on a trip like that."

Castiel sighed, knowing that Sam was right. He couldn't help it that he'd only been living here a month and he was already going stir crazy and looking for any excuse he could find to go away somewhere. "Of course. I guess we should begin a little closer to home. Take them to Kansas City or something of the sort."

"Not so fast," Sam laughed, and he reached over to ruffle Castiel's hair even as he was still working on petting Gabriel's. "I didn't say it was impossible. Just said we have to think about it some more."

"Oh, that's right. Let me just call up the people I know at the US Mint and get them to print us a few thousand extra dollars," Castiel said sarcastically. "I know we're telling these kids to believe in themselves, but if we don't have the money then we don't have the money."

"If we don't have the money, then we need to obtain the money," Sam corrected gently, and then giggled. "You're just as sarcastic as Dean is. Clearly you've been picking up tips."

"Please. This is a natural talent. I taught the man everything he knows."

Sam snorted out loud, and bent double over himself, laughing far harder than the situation really called for, but when he finally managed to collect himself he said, "Fundraisers, that's what we need. Events to get the general public interested, get the community to contribute, all the proceeds going towards this trip."

Gabriel opened his eyes and sat up, looking like the movement was a real struggle, but he managed it. "And we need to talk about who exactly this'll be for. I say we aim it at the fifth grade - we can't have things getting too big, so keeping it to one grade is good for that. They're old enough to appreciate the trip and be a little more independent, and if we do it at the end of the school year, then it's a last fun thing to do before they head off to middle school. Like a graduation gift, you know?"

Castiel nodded, feeling his heart swell in his chest, unable to believe that these people he barely knew were actually taking him seriously and acting like he could really pull this off. A nagging voice inside Castiel's head told him that if it were Dean he'd suggested this to in the first place, Dean would have just laughed in his face and said that there was plenty to do here. He could hear Dean's voice in his head:  _"no way are we ever getting a busload of kids over to DC."_ Dean would have given up without even trying.

Sam and Gabriel, however... they were trying to actually making this happen. They were seriously discussing how they could pull this off. They wanted to help, and they were doing something to show that.

Castiel got caught up in discussions of how the three of them could maybe make this a reality, took another beer that Sam offered, drank up, kept throwing ideas about, got onto the internet to see if bus or plane was a more viable option for transporting a significant amount of children, took a third beer that Sam offered, laughed so hard his sides hurt, rested his cheek on Sam's shoulder, listened to a full explanation of Gabriel's favorite TV show and watched an episode, finished the third beer, looked at his watch and--

"It's quarter to two?"

He shot up in alarm, already grabbing his shoes and trying to stuff them on his feet.

Sam jumped up too and grabbed his arm. "Hey, hey, don't worry about it. We can give you a ride back if you need, or you can call Dean if you told him you'd be home, and-"

"No, I have to work," Cas babbled, running his hands through his hair in a panic. "I work at two in the morning today, that's when my shift starts, you know how hospital shifts are, and it takes me twenty minutes to get over there plus I gotta find a place to park, and I've been drinking and that's not good and I need to go home and change into my work clothes and-" Cas crumpled against Sam, burying his head into Sam's warm chest, where he felt safe and where he most definitely wasn't going to get fired from his job.

"It's okay, it's okay." Gabriel stuck his hand in Cas' jeans pocket without even asking, or thinking about the fact that his hand was currently about two centimeters away from Castiel's dick, and pulled out his phone. "You're going to call them and tell them you had a medical emergency and are probably contagious and therefore could not possibly work. And you only realized it on the way over when you... when you..."

"When you threw up in the car!" Sam chimed in. "And you don't want to infect your patients so it really is best for everyone that you stay home tonight and get some rest, and then you'll come in tomorrow as a patient if you think this could be a serious problem."

Castiel stared at the two of them, these partners in crime who were basically encouraging him to skive off work. "You mean I should lie?"

"Well, I wouldn't usually recommend it," Sam began.

Gabriel cut in, "I would. Give yourself a mental health day once in a while. Have some fun in your life."

Sam rolled his eyes but smiled. "Occasionally, the situation is beyond your control, and you're just trying to minimize the damages for yourself."

Castiel nodded slowly. "Yes. Yes, I like that. Minimize the damages."

"Exactly. So make the call," Gabriel waved Cas' phone tantalizingly in front of his face.

"What am I going to tell Dean when I show up at home right after my shift starts?"

Gabriel turned to Sam and the two of them exchanged mischievous looks that already had Cas nervous yet strangely excited about what they were going to say.

"How about you just don't tell him?" Sam said in a stage whisper.

"You mean-"

"We'll have another drink, stay up for another couple hours," Gabriel explained, "and then you can crash on our couch. Go home tomorrow whenever you would have been done with your shift. And Dean will never know what happened."

Cas was so tempted. He felt like Sam and Gabriel were the two little devils on his shoulder telling him to do things he would never otherwise have considered. He'd never missed a shift when he was back in Philly, he'd had a reputation around the hospital as one of the most reliable nurses they had... and yet here he was in Lawrence, drunk ten minutes before he should be at work, hanging out with his friends while his husband slept peacefully, having absolutely no idea where he was.

He should absolutely, absolutely say no, run out the door, get to work as quickly as he could, throw cold water over his face, apologize profusely for being late and work as hard as he could for the rest of the shift to apologize for it. That was what he would usually have done. Not that he would ever usually have been in this situation.

Instead, he took his phone back from Gabriel.

"Alright. I will have that last drink. I'll make the call now."

\--

Castiel arrived home promptly at two thirty PM the following day, around the time he would have been home if he'd been at work like the good guy he usually was, but feeling far more refreshed than he would be after a twelve hour shift. He immediately shot off a text to Dean, feeling like he should do some kind of small good deed to make up for everything that he'd done wrong last night.

Castiel [14:42] Hey, I can get the kids from school this afternoon, don't worry about trying to get off work early.

Dean [14:46] You sure you're not too tired after work?

Castiel pulled a face. Was Dean suspicious? Did he know something was up?

Castiel [14:48] Feeling surprisingly good. I'll nap once you get home, whenever that is. No rush!

He might have to fake being a lot more tired than he really was tonight, but it would be worth it. He'd had a great evening. And, with any luck, he was planning a trip to Washington DC...

He laughed to himself and switched on the television. He had time for one episode of the show Gabriel had introduced him to before he had to leave and pick up the girls from school.

\--

"So, we need to talk fundraiser ideas. What can we do that'll be fun for everyone, and preferably kid friendly, but also bring in a lot of money?" Sam asked, the next time he ran into Castiel outside the school gates. It happened a lot, and Cas wasn't sure whether the two of them were doing it consciously or otherwise. Sam and Gabriel had a system where Sam would be the one to take the kids to school, since he started work later, and Gabriel would pick them up, which meant Sam was always there in the mornings. Dean and Cas switched things up due to their more variable schedules, but that still left Sam and Cas in the same place at least a couple mornings a week. And inevitably if they did see each othe,r they would stop to chat, sometimes even sitting down for an hour or so and grabbing breakfast.

Castiel stroked the imaginary beard on his chin, thinking. "Good question. Does the school here do any kind of Christmas event?"

Sam nodded. "Yeah, we have the carol concert and we have the Nativity play and of course we have a dance for the kids at the end of the semester, it's a fun time."

"Perfect," Castiel smiled. "What I've been thinking is a winter fair. You set up tables in the hall, you have all kinds of games, like a raffle, a lucky dip, a table of cakes and other snacks to buy, pin the nose on Rudolph, treasure maps, we sell reindeer food. And all the parents donate the prizes, all the kids come along and play the games, they only cost a dollar each, the parents give the kids their spending money andenter the raffles themselves too and win bottles of wine or possibly even spa days or weekendss away if somebody runs a bed and breakfast, for example. And everything we make goes towards the trip."

Sam watched him as he explained everything, nodding along, the corner of his lip twitching. "This is something the girls' old school used to do?"

"No. This is something that _my_ elementary school used to do, way back in the day. It was the highlight of the year. I used to bring all my savings so that I could win a few chocolates and get a hug from a teacher dressed as Santa Claus."

"You didn't mention the teacher dressed as Santa Claus!"

"It was always a mystery. We never knew who was under the suit. They'd disguise their voice and wear layers of padding..."

"Maybe it was the real Santa," Sam teased, raising an eyebrow and leaning in conspiratorially.

Castiel giggled and looked away. "Of course it was. And several real elves dancing around him too, certainly not the teacher's children."

"That wouldn't make any sense. Far more respectful _and_ cost effective to just hire the real things."

"So, uh..." Cas widened his eyes and fluttered his eyelashes, wondering if he was being cheeky by saying this. "You'd make a pretty good Santa yourself. You've got the kind face for it. You're good at making the kids smile."

Sam jerked his head, his eyes widening in surprise. "Me? Santa?"

"Only if you want to, of course. There will be plenty of people who will be up for it, I'm sure, so no pressure if you'd rather not-"

"I mean, dressing up as Santa Claus has never been top of the list of things I plan on doing with my life, but I gotta say, that actually sounds like a fun time. Do I just say 'ho ho ho' and ask them what they want for Christmas?"

"Essentially, yes. And put them on your lap and give them a present from your goodie bag once they're done. It won't be the pony they asked for, but it could be some candy, or some Play-Doh, or a stuffed animal, just, something small they can unwrap."

"I think I can handle that," Sam grinned. "And I'm flattered that I'm the one you thought of. I figured you'd want me on organization and making sure everything runs smoothly."

"No, I think you should be the star of the show. I'm sure Gabriel and I can handle the organizational side," Castiel shrugged.

"And Dean?"

Cas stilled, looking up at Sam and pulling a face, almost scared to tell him the truth.

"You haven't told him about any of this yet."

Cas didn't reply. He didn't need to reply. He was already giving away exactly what he was thinking with the way he kept watching Sam and pleading for forgiveness with his eyes, just like a little kid.

"He doesn't even know we're trying to get to DC, does he?"

"Well, in fairness, you said that we should try to keep it quiet until we had a solid plan that we could pitch to the-"

"That doesn't include Dean, Castiel!" Sam explained, shaking his head in frustration. "He's your _husband._ You're supposed to be honest with him, til death do you part in good times and in bad or whatever the two of you said to each other when you got married, not that I'd know because it's not like the guy invited me... Cas, you have to tell him! What do you think's going through his head when he thinks about all the time we're spending together?"

"Oh, I don't have to wonder about that, I already know!" Cas scoffed, and, okay, maybe he was turning into _The Real Housewives of Lawrence_ by fighting with his husband's brother in the middle of the street outside the school about an imagined affair. "He thinks that you have a crush on me!"

Sam blinked at him, just staring.

"Yeah, that shut you up, didn't it," Cas said, sticking his nose in the air and rounding on Sam. "Your brother thinks that you have feelings for me and _that's_ why he's acting all weird and jealous. And of course I know that's not what's going on here, because you and Gabriel are the perfect couple and everything, but Dean doesn't know that. So maybe instead of being mad at me for not telling him things, you should be mad at Dean for not trusting his own brother!"

Sam screwed up his face and looked away from Cas, shaking his head, and there was a long, tense pause.

"Wait... do you..." Cas started to ask. His words echoed in the quiet that seemed to be surrounding them now, and he was suddenly worried that maybe Sam didn't think the whole idea was as ridiculous as Cas thought he would.

There was another beat of silence, and then--

"Gabe and I need to talk to you," Sam said, blowing out a long breath. "Soon as possible."

"I'm not working tonight, I could come over then?" Castiel suggested, nervous, already panicking about what Sam was going to say. He couldn't imagine what it could possibly be. In the highly unlikely event that Dean was right and that Sam actually did feel that way, there would certainly be no reason to invite...

"Yeah. Yeah, tonight's good," Sam said, giving himself a little shake, as though trying to dust himself off. "But maybe we should go to a bar or something. Casual place. Neutral territory."


End file.
